Hyundai Announced Its Performance Division - N

Hyundai exhibited its new competition model for the 2014 World Rally Championship season, known as WRC. The competition starts on the same day as the announcement of the establishment of a performance division by the Hyundai brand.

The Hyundai Performance Division will be called "N" after the first letter of the city where Hyundai has its headquarters, Namyang. The first model to bear the name N is the competition model, although Hyundai representatives have not specified whether they will apply the particle "N" in the classical name of the model, as he did Volkswagen with Polo R WRC, or whether they will apply the solution adopted by BMW, and put the letter related to the sports division in place of the letter "i" in the name of each model in the range.

The company is testing the i20 machine that will compete with VW’s Polo, Citroen’s DS3 as well as Ford’s Focus.

The Hyundai performance division has been announced in the past, and that it is designed to achieve additional growth in all markets in which the brand from South Korea operates, as well as to develop the image of the Namyang manufacturer. As demonstrated by the Hyundai’s rivals, a strong and wide array of performance models can be used as image capital to increase the sales volume. To the extent that Hyundai has come up with competitive pricing in Europe, we can expect the performance division to provoke the emotions of builders who have a tradition in this field on the European market.

The return of Hyundai brand in WRC brings, besides the immediate benefit for the championship with the entry of a new team of factory, the image capital for the South Korean brand, and know-how for the engineers of the performance division. In addition, Hyundai opened in 2013, a test center at Nurburgring, which will be heavily involved in both the development of the series models and development of the performance models.

“It is Hyundai’s intention to connect the experience of sport with road cars,” said team principal Michel Nandan. “It’s probably a bit too early to talk about it because we’re still in the early stages of the development of the i20 WRC.”

Team manager Alain Penasse declared that the WRC program has the goal of changing the brand’s image in order to attract younger buyers. “Whatever performance we get from the WRC car you always sell better,” he said. “You attract attention of younger people and that’s the aim of Hyundai. It knows it has to do something to make the brand younger and more dynamic.”

He continued saying that the rally program is already having a positive influence on research and development activities: “We have a lot of Korean engineers who are at the WRC base near Frankfurt.

“They work closely with us and there is a very good cooperation with the Yeongnam research and development centre. They started the work on the i20 WRC there before the program was launched and are heavily involved.”

Renault has revealed the Duster Extreme Concept at the Auto Show in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The concept vehicle is developed by Renault Design Latin America or RADL, the company's design center based in Sao Paulo, Brazil,...

Alfa Romeo has officially unveiled the new Stelvio at the Auto Show in Los Angeles. The first SUV in the
history of the Italian automaker was named in honor of the most spectacular mountain pass in Europe
which...

Along with the launch of the Golf 7 Facelift, the Germans from Volkswagen bring improvements for their electric version too. Perhaps the most important novelty on the e-Golf Facelift is that the range of the new...

In the future, the BMW Group will be based increasingly on innovation and digitization for a sustainable logistics processes. A fully interconnected supply chain, autonomous transport robots, and use of existing...

The long awaited Land Rover Defender will go on sale in 2018. The new generation reaches a high level of development and promises to be “even more capable” than the iconic off-roader which it replaces....

Although autonomous driving is meant to replace the driver on monotonous and boring travels, for the first time an auto manufacturer combines autonomous driving technology with tuning and an active way of life!
KIA...

The new Mercedes E-Class Coupe, codenamed C208, will be revealed in January 2017 at the Detroit Auto Show.
The E-Class family increases with the Mercedes E-Class Coupe and Cabrio, expected to join the revised range...

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas brings many interesting concepts, but also many custom cars. Toyota introduced many concepts this time that are particularly interesting.
The...

The Swedish company Volvo has officially presented the elongated wheelbase version of the sedan Volvo S90 and luxury version called Volvo S90 Excellence. Presentation of the cars took place in Shanghai and the public...

Mazda unveiled two new concepts based on the MX-5 roadster, one of which has undergone a strict diet and came to weigh almost as much as a Smart!
Mazda takes care to satisfy the claims of its most unusual fans....

At the SEMA Show Chevrolet brought several Camaro modified model, as well as a Chevelle classic model from the year 1969!
The new Chevrolet Camaro Turbo AutoX combines a turbo engine that has a displacement of...

Henrik Fisker posted on Twitter a few pictures with the electric car EMotion,from Fisker Inc., and immediately after he did so everyone's attention was captured. The reason is as simple as can be - the luxurious...

Stelvio, the first SUV by Alfa Romeo, is ready to debut next month at Los Angeles… but until then we have some spy photos.
In the latest set of spy photos, the new Alfa Romeo SUV leaves some of the camouflage...

Renault-Nissan Alliance is preparing to integrate Mitsubishi in its structures and the three car makers will share production platforms and technologies.
In the first half of this year, Mitsubishi was very close...

With the newest SUV, Volkswagen celebrates two premieres: firstly, VW renounces at the strategy to name all SUV brands with names that start with “T” and, secondly, it creates the biggest SUV of the brand....

Next month, Mitsubishi will bring a full list of updates to the Auto Show in Los Angeles, topped by the eX concept - which reached American soil for the first time.
Even though its debut is set in about three weeks,...